AI Dominates Nearly All Top 10 Funding Rounds This Week

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This is a weekly feature that runs down the week’s Top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week’s biggest funding deal roundup here.

The latest compilation of major U.S. startup funding rounds was heavily dominated by artificial intelligence. This trend includes the week’s largest transaction—a $1 billion investment in Instinct, a creator of daily-task AI assistants—alongside the vast majority of the other top ten positions. Additional prominent fundraisers featured EliseAI, which applies AI to the home rental market, and Armadin, an AI-focused cybersecurity firm.

1. Instinct, $1B, AI assistants: San Francisco-based Instinct, a startup building a personal AI assistant for everyday tasks, secured $1 billion in a Series C round. Sequoia Capital, Benchmark and Coatue backed the financing, which set a $10 billion valuation for the year-old company.

2. EliseAI, $350M, AI for housing: EliseAI, a startup deploying AI for the home rental industry, completed a $350 million funding round at a $4 billion valuation. Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners led the financing for the New York-based company, which is also expanding into healthcare.

3. Armadin, $255.5M, cybersecurity: Palo Alto, California-based Armadin, an AI-native cybersecurity company focused on autonomous security, raised $255.5 million in Series B funding. Andreessen Horowitz and Accel led the round, which set a valuation of more than $2.5 billion for the year-old startup.

4. Kahua, $250M, project management: Kahua, a platform for enterprises to manage complex capital projects, picked up $250 million in growth funding from Bain Capital Tech Opportunities. The financing set a valuation of over $1 billion for the Alpharetta, Georgia-based company.

5. GMI Cloud, $223M, AI infrastructure: Mountain View, California-based GMI Cloud, a provider of GPU cloud infrastructure used by AI teams to help train and run models, closed on $223 million in Series B funding as well as $445 million in debt financing. Archiv led the round, with participation from Nvidia.

6. General Intuition, $220M, foundational AI: General Intuition,a developer of AI models trained on videos and virtual worlds to develop skills for physical environments, secured $220 million in fresh funding. Valor Equity Partners and Atreides Management were lead backers in the round, which set a $6.2 billion valuation for the New York-based company.

7. (tied) SiMa.ai, $150M, physical AI: SiMa.ai, developer of a software platform for scaling physical AI applications, picked up $150 million in Series C financing at a $1.45 billion valuation. Fidelity and Amplify led the round for the San Jose-based company.

7. (tied) Supabase, $150M, agentic app development: Supabase, provider of an AI-enabled open source Postgres platform for app developers, announced $150 million in new funding led by GIC. The San Francisco-based startup also said it is acquiring database architecture startup Turso.

9. CScale, $145M, AI infrastructure: CScale, a developer of optical interconnect technology for AI data centers, emerged from stealth and says it secured $145 million in Series C funding. Atreides Management, Valor Equity Partners, and Premji Invest led the round for the Palo Alto, California-based startup.

10. Homeward, $120M, real estate: Austin-based Homeward, a startup that helps homeowners buy before selling their existing homes or get cash offers for their properties, closed on $120 million in Series D equity funding led by Saluda Grade. The 8-year-old company also secured $330 million in debt financing.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Sept. 26-Oct. 2, 2026. Although most announced rounds are in the database, there may be a small time lag, as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What was the largest funding round of the week?

Instinct secured the largest financing of the week with a $1 billion Series C round, valuing the year-old company at $10 billion.

2. Which sector dominated the weekly funding rounds?

Artificial intelligence-related companies accounted for nearly all of the top ten funding rounds announced during the week.

3. Which company received backing from Nvidia?

GMI Cloud closed on $223 million in Series B funding alongside $445 million in debt financing in a round led by Archiv, with participation from Nvidia.

4. What database was used to track these transactions?

The information was tracked using the Crunchbase database for U.S.-based companies covering the period of Sept. 26-Oct. 2, 2026.

5. Are debt financing amounts included in the equity totals?

No, debt financing is reported separately alongside the equity funding totals for companies like GMI Cloud and Homeward.